U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued drought disaster designations for Weld County and 29 other Colorado counties on Wednesday, allowing operators of farms in those counties to be considered for assistance such as emergency low-interest loans.

Vilsack wrote Gov. John Hickenlooper that the 30 counties had suffered severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions during the recent growing season.

Farmers and ranchers in 13 other Colorado counties, including Boulder and Larimer, also can be considered for federal Farm Service Agency assistance because they're contiguous to one or more of the 30 counties the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated as primary natural disaster areas.

A distressed 30-acre corn field planted by Longmont-area farmer Doug Rademacher was tilled last summer so that it would not draw any more moisture out of the ground.
(Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

Farmers in those counties who meet federal eligibility requirements have eight months to apply for Farm Service Agency emergency loans.

Local Farm Service Agency offices -- including one at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, Suite D, Longmont, and one at 4302 W. Ninth Street Road, Greeley -- can provide drought-affected farmers with more information, USDA officials said.

According to online information from the USDA and the Farm Service Agency, the emergency loans can help finance restoration or replacement of essential property damaged in the drought disaster, to finance production losses to crops and livestock, to fund essential family living and farm operating expenses, or to refinance certain debts.

Agricultural producers can borrow up to 100 percent of the actual production or physical losses, minus any compensation they get from insurance, up to a maximum of $500,000. Loans for crop, livestock and non-real estate losses are normally repaid within one to seven years.

Farmers can go to usda.gov/drought for the latest information about USDA's drought response and assistance programs.

Last year, the USDA issued drought-disaster declarations for 2,245 counties in 39 states, or 71 percent of the United States, officials said.

That included a July 3 designation of all but two Colorado counties as primary natural disaster areas due to damage and losses caused by drought, excessive heat and high winds that began Jan. 1 and continued through mid-2012.

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